


Tranquility

by mainelycatharine



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Brainwashing, Choking, Detroit Evolution, Feral!Nines, M/M, STOP GIVING ME IDEAS PEOPLE I HAVE TO FOCUS ON ONE THING AT A TIME, Zen Garden scene, breaking mind control - Freeform, corrupted!gavin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22904473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mainelycatharine/pseuds/mainelycatharine
Summary: Everything is calm. Everything is peaceful. Everything isperfect.“Nice day out, huh?” Gavin asks. Nines nods, turning back to look at Gavin, watching as a warm breeze ruffles the detective’s hair.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 17
Kudos: 247





	Tranquility

**Author's Note:**

> i blame the discord server and the discord server alone for my actions.

_God, he’s gorgeous_ Nines thinks to himself as he steps into the red bridge of the zen garden, looking across to the middle of the structure. In the center of the bridge stands the object of his desire, one Detective Gavin Reed, standing serenely in a white long-sleeve shirt and dark pants, his arms leaning on the railing. At Nines’ footsteps, Gavin turns, and he smiles broadly as he watches Nines approach. Nines returns the expression instantly, coming to stand next to Gavin as the two turn to face the water underneath them.

Everything is calm. Everything is peaceful. Everything is _perfect._

“Nice day out, huh?” Gavin asks. Nines nods, turning back to look at Gavin, watching as a warm breeze ruffles the detective’s hair. 

“The weather is exceptional for Detroit at this time of year,” Nines agrees, and it really is. “I would like to give you an exact reading of the temperature, but I’m not currently getting any input from my external sensors.” And typically that would bother him, wouldn’t it? But right now he can’t bring himself to care. There are birds chirping in the trees, and the sunset over the walls of the garden is a brilliant orange that lights up everything around them. 

Everything is calm. Everything is peaceful. Everything is…perfect?

Gavin chuckles wryly, lifting his arms off of the railing and facing Nines fully.

“Take a break from the sensors for a minute, Nines,” he murmurs, reaching over to take Nines’ hand. Nines accepts the touch wholeheartedly, grasping Gavin’s fingers between his own, letting the syrupy feeling that's coating his mind drip down into his limbs. Hand in hand, they walk further along the bridge, stopping once they reach the end and return to the walking path.

“This is really nice, isn’t it?” Gavin asks softly, and Nines just nods without speaking. Gavin turns, stepping into Nines’ personal space, looking up at him with a fondness in his eyes that Nines had only ever seen before by chance, when Gavin thinks he isn't looking. Nines beams at him. The moment seems to stretch on forever. He reaches up to Gavin’s face, cupping his cheek slightly, and Gavin makes no move to push him away. _This was it. After all this time pulling and pushing at each other, Gavin was finally going to let him..._

Nines looks down at the detective, trying to capture the scene in his memory banks for future reference, the rare expression coupled with his pale hand against Gavin’s tan skin. But the fog over his processors is still present, and none of his functions seem to be, well, _functioning_ properly.

Nines furrows his brow and blinks. That’s…strange. He pinches his eyes closed to try to clear his mind, but that only succeeds in causing his head to start hurting slightly. When he opens his eyes, Gavin is regarding him with concern.

“Nines?” he asks. “Is everything alright?”

Yes, of course, what a funny question. Of course everything is alright. Everything is calm. Everything is peaceful. Everything is…

Everything is…

Everything is _wrong._

At that thought, the dull pain in his head sharpens to a point, and he cries out, snatching his hand away from Gavin’s face and stumbling backwards. With even more of the fog lifted, Nines starts to hear whispers in the back of his head accompanying the ache, but he can’t quite make out what they’re saying. 

He realizes that Gavin is now standing next to him again, calling out his name.

“Nines, what are you doing?” he cries, grabbing both of the android’s shoulders in a vice grip. “Why are you fighting it? Aren’t you happy here? C’mon, stay with me — we can be happy together, right here, as long as you want. Forever.”

And Nines _wants,_ he wants so badly to listen to what Gavin is saying, but then the pain and the whispers explode behind his eyes and suddenly he’s _back,_ he’s back outside his body, and though the images and memories are distorted he can still see flashes: stumbling across the serial killer in the warehouse, the killer somehow gaining the upper hand against him, flipping Nines’ kill switch, and then Gavin coming to Nines’ defense just as the killer was fleeing.

Now, in the present, he can see his hands but they’re not _his,_ and they’re wrapped around Gavin’s throat, the _real_ Gavin, back out there in the warehouse and Gavin’s calling his name, trying to keep Nines from choking him against the cold concrete floor.

Trying to keep Nines from killing him.

He blinks, and then he’s snapped back to the zen garden and Gavin is standing in front of him, but it’s not _his_ Gavin, and then he knows what he has to do.

He turns away from this projection his mind has created for him, and now he finally sees the truth. A red wall of programming stands in front of him, caging him into his own programming, and he realizes that this is exactly what his predecessor, RK800, must've had to do. This is the choice he had to make.

“Nines!” The fake Gavin cries, trying to yank on his shoulder again, but Nines doesn’t turn around. He can’t, because he knows if he does — if he takes one more look at the soft, perfect detective and the soft, perfect world surrounding him, he _knows_ that he won’t be able to leave. And he has to leave, because even if the Gavin in here loves him, wants to give him anything his heart desires, he’s not _real._

Which means he’s not the Gavin that Nines wants.

Fake Gavin is still yelling at him, but Nines ignores him. Instead, he lifts a fist high into the air, hesitating for only a second before bringing it down hard against the red wall in front of him. The programming sparks and fizzles in front of his eyes, as does the scenery, but it doesn't break. He grits his teeth and raises his fist again.

_Thud._

It _hurts,_ yes, the pain in his head is still here, and all he needs to do to make it go away is to just turn around.

_Thud._

But he _can’t,_ because this world was made for him, but it isn’t the one he belongs to.

_Thud._

Because out in the real world he’s killing the first and only person he’s ever fallen in love with.

_Thud. Crack. SMASH!_

The wall splinters into a thousand red shards, and Nines feels like he might pass out from the pain — something he didn’t think androids were capable of doing. The gentle breeze from the zen garden is now a howling wind around his ears, and he drops to his knees and squeezes his eyes shut, screaming against the programming keeping him a prisoner in his own head.

_Let me out. Let me OUT. LET ME OUT!_

He opens his eyes.

Blinks once, twice. Feels the cold concrete under his knees and the warm, giving flesh underneath his fingers. Without thinking, he loosens his grip, and the body under him gasps for renewed breath in painful heaves. His vision focuses.

“…Gavin?”

“Nines.” _wheeze._ “Nines, oh, thank _god._ "


End file.
